Bongosso | |
Settlement Type: | Village |
Pushpin Map: | Mali |
Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
Pushpin Mapsize: | 300 |
Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Mali |
Subdivision Type: | Country |
Subdivision Name: | Mali |
Subdivision Type1: | Region |
Subdivision Name1: | Sikasso Region |
Subdivision Type2: | Cercle |
Subdivision Name2: | Koutiala Cercle |
Subdivision Type3: | Commune |
Subdivision Name3: | Koromo |
Population As Of: | 1998 |
Population Blank1 Title: | Ethnicities |
Utc Offset: | +0 |
Coordinates: | 12.6717°N -5.1931°W |
Elevation M: | 306 |
Bongosso (or Bougounso) is a village and seat (chef-lieu) of the commune of Koromo in the Cercle of Koutiala in the Sikasso Region of southern Mali.[1] The village is northeast of Koutiala.
French explorer René Caillié stopped at Bongosso in February 1828 on his journey to Timbuktu. He was travelling with a caravan transporting kola nuts to Djenné. He described the village in his book Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo published in 1830. He wrote:
About eleven in the morning we arrived at Bancousso [Bongosso], a large village containing a population of five or six hundred, and situated in a well cultivated plain, shaded by baobabs. This village has a large market, well supplied with the productions of the country; I saw in it a great quantity of cloth and earthen pots which are made here.